Yuzuri at Nanayama

Today was a public holiday here (umi no hi/ day of the sea) and since it was terribly hot (about 36C), we decided to drive to Nanayama (7 mountains), a mountain area with a lot of farms, rivers and nature.

The pics I post here are from 2010, because I forgot to take pictures this time...

But I want to show you the places we visited today and they haven't really changed at all.

But what has changed to our big surprise was a new restaurant, opened in June here, near the river, where the kids use to play.

It is called "Yuzuri" ゆずり (柚里) and the food there is excellent !!!

The cook uses fresh vegetables and fish from that area and also mixes Japanese and Western cuisin. The menue was really one of the best I ever ate and I want to go there again.

The Yuzuri is located in such a beautiful spot. We will visit there again :)

Oh and the whole menue was 1800 Yen, less than 15 Euros.

Kurumabasso ice cream in Hakodate

Finally, after about 4 years the woodruff ice cream is available in Hakodate...

The story was, when I moved there, I found woodruff in the forest. In Germany, woodruff flavour is used for ice-cream, winecocktail (Maibowle) and other things.

 

Back then I used to make that winecocktail for our friends at the Miraidai Univesity and they loved it very much. The reason is, in Japan people use the same aroma, which is in woodruff (Cumarine) for Sakuramochi. The difference is. The Cumarine in Sakuramochi comes from fermented Cherry leaves. The process is quite complicated, but with woodruff, it only takes 5 minutes, if you let it wilt a little bit in your hands.

So back then we thought, why not introduce it to people in Hakodate?

My friend Prof. Noyuri Mima, from the Miraidaigakku and me got together and talked about this. I showed them what woodruff is, where it grows and how to make icecream, Cocktail, etc out of it.

 

Here is the whole story, but unfortunatelly in Japanese only...

http://www.fun.ac.jp/~noyuri/hakodate_herb/index.html

 

That's how it started...

 

 

 

 

And thanks to the wonderful team of Mima-sensei and people of Hakodate, here is the finished product.

 

And I'm proud that it is out on the market.

Feeling a little bit like Carl Raymon now ^_^  

  

And lucky me, in Fukuoka grows woodruff, too ^_^